Main navigation

Carrot

The dehydrator was out and we had a counter full of onions and carrots. I almost passed them by justifying that they were one of few foods I can buy local and fresh (though not nearly as good as the moment they come from the ground) throughout the year. I also associate them with the hard chunks I have received in homemade instant soup recipes – the kind that you add water, an oxo cube and transform a jar of pebbles into nourishment.

Then again, the carrots and onions were there. I have eaten dehydrated versions of them my entire life (not in great quantity, mind you) and I like the idea of learning more about what you eat by cooking it at least once (something I`ve wanted to extend to the world of cheese for some time).

This post shows just how easy it is to preserve food; the recipe used less than a cup of carrots and green onions but could be scaled up or down as you’d like. I’m back in cooking classes with my Father (we’re studying knife skills this month) and that means two things:

I’m going to learn some new things (which always excites me)

I will gain access to food I don’t normally buy; classes are rarely based on season or locality and I often take extra ingredients home to prevent them from being thrown out.

As part of our training I was practicing cutting carrots and green onions. After successfully transforming them into thin strips (Julienne), I packed them to take home and needed a plan. I experimented with fermenting the two ingredients together and was quite surprised at the results!

One of the most enjoyable aspects of fermenting food (as compared to other techniques, such as waterbath or pressure canning), is the freedom to be ultimately creative and to experiment in the kitchen.

My early experiments in fermenting were almost always either overly salty or under-fermented. I’ve learned that using 15-30 grams (approximately 0.5-1 ounce) of salt per 1 liter (1 quart) mason jar, is the right amount of salt for me and that regular tasting ensures success in fermenting. A ferment can quickly migrate from under-fermented to perfect and then to over-fermented in less than a day (depending on the temperature and what you’re fermenting).

I also love to cook with mirepoix – the classic French combination of onion, carrot and celery. It’s fantastic as a base for stir fry, sauces, soups and more. We found ourselves with an awesome bunch of onions, heirloom carrots and soup celery (its late harvest celery that’s very tough to eat but has an abundance of leaves that can be used like celery hearts). I couldn’t resist fermenting them together:

Fermented Carrots? Of course! They are a sweet and sour pickle that’s super crunchy and are a fantastic way to learn how to ferment. This recipe takes minutes (or less to prepare) and will last in your fridge for a year or more (but we can eat a quart/ liter in a week!)

This is a fantastically easy way to pickle carrots. It takes mere minutes to do and the results will last in your fridge for weeks. If you’re looking for something that will last longer or that you want to store at room temperature, you can check out spicy carrot pickles or our carrot archive for even more ideas.

Despite being the middle of winter, we’re still fortunate to have access to plenty of local greens from our local Farmer’s Market. Most of the greens (though not all) are sprouts and range from sweet to very spicy. The purple radish sprouts we used in this salad have a significant bite which allows this to be served as an entire meal if you make enough of it (as we did).

The yolk from a soft-boiled egg mixes into the salad dressing to add a lot of body to the dressing. Once the dish is assembled taste it; you should taste a hint of salt and a slight tang from the vinegar. If there’s no tang, add a bit more vinegar until there is (this will balance the taste of the yolk).

Need a meal or a hardy side-dish in minutes? Cooking isn’t a race but it’s handy to have a few quick recipes in your toolkit that you can make when you’re in a rush. This root salad recipe is an easy winter snack that can use most root vegetables (I stay away from potatoes or yams as they take longer to cook) as the base and you can add just about anything from your fridge.

Fermented carrots? We’ve made a vinegar-based carrot pickle for years (it’s extremely spicy) that remains one of the more popular items in our pantry. This fermented version has no spice and contrasts the natural sweetness of the carrot with the sour of fermentation. The carrots also have great texture (much the same as a deli pickle retains it’s crunch). We will eat these as a snack, garnish, salad dressing or as part of a side dish for dinner.

I’ve been reading a cookbook without recipes lately. I’ll publish a proper review on it within the month but I couldn’t resist sharing an experiment that was inspired by the Faviken cookbook now (the book is a bit of an instant cult-classic and offers a take on food that most of us would never imagine and isn’t everyones cup of tea).

The book is very clear that they want to share their views and thinking on cooking but not leave exact copies of their approaches – it’s more about understanding a certain approach to cooking and challenging each of us to create our own take on it should we choose. When I read about air-dried root vegetables, I couldn’t’ resist. Here’s my before and after: